Degenerate art

Art condemned by the Nazi regime as incompatible with its racial and cultural ideology, often confiscated from German museums and publicly denounced.

Nazi cultural policy: The policies through which the Nazi regime sought to control cultural production and public life. It supplied the ideological framework for condemning and removing works labeled degenerate.
Confiscation of art in Nazi Germany: The seizure of artworks from German public collections by Nazi authorities, especially in 1937. Confiscation converted ideological denunciation into the physical removal of works.
Emil Nolde: A German-Danish Expressionist painter whose work was condemned by the Nazi regime despite his support for Nazism. His case exposes the gap between political loyalty and the regime’s racialized judgments of style.
Emigration from Nazi Germany: The departure of people from Germany under Nazi rule, often to escape persecution. Artists targeted by the regime fled Germany, reshaping artistic life in exile.
Nazi art: Art produced or promoted under Nazi rule in accordance with the regime’s preferred classical and nationalist ideals. It embodied the officially approved aesthetic set against works labeled degenerate.
Adolf Hitler: The dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until 1945. His hostility to modernism helped shape the regime’s attack on avant-garde art.
Museum of Modern Art: A New York museum founded in 1929 and devoted to modern and contemporary art. Its 1939 exhibition documented works removed from German museums and challenged Nazi judgments.
Otto Dix: A German painter known for unsparing depictions of war, urban life, and social inequality. The regime removed his works and dismissed him from his teaching post.
Exile art: Art created by artists living outside their home countries under conditions of political displacement. The campaign helped drive German artists into exile and changed where their work was made.
Modern art: Art that departs from traditional forms and conventions, especially from the late nineteenth century onward. The Nazi label targeted many modernist styles rather than a single coherent movement.

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